


TO BE

by xfadingstarx



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Overworking, Past Abuse, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-19 17:00:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20660624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xfadingstarx/pseuds/xfadingstarx
Summary: All you wanted was a new espresso machine and some 'net cred, but none of that mattered to him. To him, you were a nobody who'd somehow managed to do the unthinkable and that was unacceptable.Seto/Reader (medium burn)





	1. The Goddamn Espresso Machine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eeek my first time writing for YGO. 
> 
> Many thanks to Dragonsilk for helping this plot bunny appear and the encouragement!

You leaned back in your chair with a yawn, stretching slightly. Clearly, spending the day hunched over a computer did your back no favours.

“Time to call it a night,” you muttered as you saw it was almost five in the morning. You rubbed your tired eyes. Bed sounded heavenly right now. 

You shut your computer off and crawled underneath the covers of your bed, hoping that you’d wake up in time for work tomorrow. 

* * *

“Senpai, the boss wants the code to be rewritten. The rubric has been updated, something about wanting more features,” the intern said as soon as you sat down at your desk. 

You sighed as you gazed longingly at the café across the street. _ Hello darkness my old friend... _

“Bring me the new requirements for the program and a cup of coffee from my usual place please,” you responded, not looking up from your screen. 

“Right away.” 

When the intern returned, you scanned over the documents and quickly compared them with the code you’d already written.

Fuck. 

Your boss was a slave driver. Not only did you have to rewrite you current code, you also had to add to it. 

“Spirits have mercy,” you muttered under your breath. 

* * *

It was close to midnight when you finally left the office. You were practically dead on your feet; swaying like a willow in the wind as you hailed a cab using your phone app. 

“It doesn’t make sense for a major city to stop trains this early,” you grumbled as you confirmed your ride. Not for the first time, you regretted not selling your parents’ apartment and moving closer to work; real estate investment be damned. 

Awhile later, the cab dropped you off in front of a high-rise apartment and you tiredly greeted the doorman on your way up. You were so excited to plant your face into your pillow and pass out.

You proceeded to do just that; however, your moment of bliss was interrupted by the ringing of your phone in your purse. Lethargically, you walked over to grab and answer it. 

“Yo! I have a favour to ask,” a young, energetic male voice spoke. 

“Did you not see the time, Keisuke-kun?” 

“You know we don’t sleep,” he shot back. 

Fair point. 

“What do you need? I have a bed calling my name,” you replied grouchily. 

“Check the IRC. I messaged you.” 

Your eyelid twitched. “Let me get this straight, you phone me at midnight, after I worked a sleep deprived sixteen hour shift to tell me to check the IRC?” 

“Yes, but I promise you it’s important.” 

You rolled your eyes. “I’m checking now. I’ll message.” 

You hung up and opened the internet relay chat server. 

_ [23:59] <kDrun> remember how you said that the Kaiba Corp. game system security was top notch? _

_ [00:56] ***aquad_3 has joined #CGODW _

_ [00:57] <aquad_3> it’s not like I spent all of last night looking for a back door or anything _

_ [00:58] <kDrun> I propose a bet _

_ [00:59] <aquad_3> …what kind of bet? _

_ [01:00] <kDrun> my little brother just got the latest duel disk. I’ll send you over the SD card encryption. I’ll drop off the duel disk for you later. You have free reign of the device. If you can hack into it and find a way to tamper with the data, I’ll buy you a new espresso machine. That fancy Italian one you were looking at. _

_ [01:01] <aquad_3> I’ll think about it. Why does your brother want it? _

_ [01:02] <kDrun> something about using the disk to play different sorts of duels. Think about the cred _

_ [01:03] <aquad_3> promise me you’ll buy that machine? _

_ [01:03] <kDrun> absolutely _

_ [01:04] <aquad_3> what’s the time limit? _

_ [01:05] <kDrun> four weeks _

_ [01:05] <aquad_3> that’s not a lot of time. You know day job is a bitch. _

_ [01:06] <kDrun> take it or leave it. Coffee and Cred. C&C lolol _

_ [01:06] <aquad_3> got it. Leave the disk with the doorman. See you in four weeks _

_ [01:07] ***aquad_3 has left #CGODW _

_ [01:07] ***kDrun has left #CGODW _

Four weeks to hack into the KC Duel Disks, huh? You stared blankly at your ceiling. Thinking about the workload of your current job, you mentally cursed yourself for taking the bet. 

Oh well, sleep was for the weak, especially when an espresso machine was on the line.

* * *

Two weeks into this pet project and you were ready to admit defeat. There were just way too many variables. 

You slammed your head against your work desk in frustration. Exhaling deeply, you took a moment to gather your thoughts. 

"Maybe it'd help if I searched online," you thought, opening up your browser to trawl through various hacker forums. 

Within an hour, you'd found that the duel disk generated half of its encryption by using the friend code as the seed and inputting said seed into a mathematical equation. 

It wasn't much progress but at least you'd found something new about the system. 

* * *

As week three rounded, you were getting desperate. You’d analyzed the second half of the encryption countless times and there were no weaknesses in the code. 

You knocked back your fifth coffee of the day and sighed in frustration. This was getting nowhere. So far all you’d had was that half of the encryption was known. The other half just seemed to be random. 

“Numerical randomness is a lie,” you repeated to yourself as a form of encouragement.

You’d typed out pages and pages of numbers, trying to figure how they related. 

No dice. 

You opened up the friend code seed and stared at it, wishing it would give you an answer. 

Suddenly, you saw it. There was a mathematical relationship between the friend code seed and half of the last unknown half of the encryption. This meant that only a little portion of the encryption was left unknown. You could easily force your way through now and within about an hour, you were in. 

Holy shit. You’d cracked the code. 

Victory. 

Quickly you texted Keisuke to notify him of your win and leapt into bed for your first full night of sleep in three weeks. 

* * *

“How’d you do it,” Keisuke asked, lifting the house brand ceramic cup and sipping his beverage slowly. 

“It was simple once I realised that part of the encryption had something to do the friend code seed,” you responded, fingers working diligently to tear the scone on your plate apart. 

“Wait? Actually?” 

“Yeah. Half of the unknown encryption related mathematically to the friend code, so I just brute forced the other half and found a way in.” 

“Their president is going to be pissed. Hiding the key in the friend code seed isn’t exactly discreet.” He let out a laugh. 

“Well, maybe he thought that his company’s reputation would scare others off of trying. I doubt he has direct control over the specific coding though.” You popped a bit of scone in your mouth. 

“That’s true.” Keisuke stared at your pastry again, mild disgust apparent on his features. “I don’t know how you eat those things. That’s your fourth one today.” 

“I need sugar after using my brain like that. This has sugar. I’m buying candy after too.” 

Keisuke shook his head. “You do you.” 

“That espresso machine will certainly help with that. I’ll send you the link.” You giggled. "I'm glad I figured it out."

He rolled his eyes. "My bank account isn't." 

* * *

Weeks later, you posted on an anonymous server that you’d found a way in to the high security Duel Disk SD card and how others could accomplish this feat too. Comments quickly flooded in praising your ingenuity. Many of them were grateful, as the encryption key would allow for the bypassing of the main security and anti-piracy feature of the disk. 

Oh how good hacker cred felt. 

You eyed your new espresso machine in the corner of the kitchen. Only coffee would make hacker cred feel better. C&C indeed. 

* * *

_ Ring. Ring. Ring. _

Your hand reached out from under the covers to fumble blindly for your phone. Who in God's name was calling so early?

Finally finding it, you sleepily answered. 

"Hello ma'am, this is a representative of Kaiba Corporation. The CEO, Kaiba Seto-sama, would like to see you in three days at 14:00." 

"I'm sorry," you questioned, not quite understanding why Kaiba Corp was giving you a call. “I don’t recall ever making acquaintance with the CEO of Kaiba Corporation.”

"He requested a meeting with you specifically. Please arrive no later than 13:50." The other end hung up.

Instead of rolling over and falling back to sleep though, you lay awake, staring at the wall, trying to figure out what on earth Kaiba Seto would want with a lowly programmer such as yourself. Maybe it had something to do with the encryption key? You covered your tracks well but if he tried hard enough, there was no guarantee you'd remain in your peaceful world. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is curious, this process of hacking the duel disk was inspired by how the Nintendo 3DS was hacked. Here's the presentation if anyone is curious (it is a lot of computer jargon): https://zoogie.github.io/web/34%E2%85%95c3/#/3
> 
> If it's too confusing, I'd recommend watching the movie "The Imitation Game", the code in that one was solved in very much the same way.
> 
> Also, cookies to anyone who manages to guess my random YGO references in the chapter. They're very tiny.


	2. The Bitter Aftertaste of Victory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not beta'd. Sorry. I got inspired suddenly. My Tumblr is xfadingstarx.tumblr.com if anyone wants to by friends. I don't bite. Promise.

You checked your recently manicured nails for the _ n_th time in the taxi before opening up your phone to shoot off a quick text to your mother.

Me: _ You didn't arrange any marriage meetings for me, right? _

Mum: _ Nope. We gave up after you stood your last two dates up. You owe us. > 3 < _

You put your phone back in your purse and sighed. You'd hoped that however unlikely, this was just your mother trying to set you up. No such luck. Well, at least your nails looked nice for when Kaiba Seto chewed you out for fucking with his software. 

* * *

Your eyes darted nervously across the gargantuan lobby. There were so many people bustling about. This was nothing like the small web development company you worked for. You gulped and gripped the handles of your designer purse a little tighter and marched up to the desk labelled "reception." 

Upon checking in, the receptionist handed you a guest badge and instructed you to head to the top floor via the elevator.

* * *

_Ding._

Your stiletto met the plush carpet a little harder than you intended and you took a second to adjust your footing. You were officially a nervous mess. 

You took a moment to gather your thoughts before smoothening the front of your skirt and approaching the desk of whom you assumed was Kaiba's secretary. 

The secretary informed you that the president was in a meeting and that you were welcome to wait in the lounge with complimentary coffee. 

"At least he has complimentary coffee," you muttered, taking a seat on the sofa and sipping the coffee. You took out your phone with one hand mindlessly scrolled through it. 

Half an hour had passed and nothing had happened. Typical businessmen. No respect for anyone else's schedule but their own. You put your phone away and closed your eyes. The constant overtime was really getting to you. 

Within minutes, your breathing evened and you fell into a quiet lull. You were almost asleep when you had heard a deep voice growl out your name. 

Your eyes snapped open and you bolted upright as you came face to face with one CEO of Kaiba Corp, Kaiba Seto. Your eyes made contact with his cerulean one and you felt as if you had been pinned in place with one glance.

"Come in," he ordered, leading the way to his office. "Sit," he gestured to the chair in front of his desk. 

You waited for him to take a seat in his own plush leather chair before you reached out with an unsteady hand to pull the chair before you out. You took a second to compose yourself and slowly lowered yourself into the cushions. 

"What a pleasure it is to make your acquaintance, Kaiba-sama," you breathed out.

"Skip the pleasantries."

"I'm sorry? I don't understand. I don't believe we've met."

"The duel disk." His voice was clipped and cold. 

A feline smile stretched its way across your lips and you shrugged. "I'm surprised you were able to find me. I thought I hid my tracks well enough." 

You locked eyes again and a glimmer of challenge shone through his gaze.

"I'm amazed you'd get your hands dirty. Normally you management types are all about assigning work and allocating resources." You smirked. Inside you were a nervous mess, but the well-trained façade of calm kept its place. 

"How did you break through my encryption." He pressed on, undeterred by your act. 

"You read the posts. You know. Hire better programmers." You pretended to check your nails. "Don't make the friend code seed the basis for half of your encryption key." 

"Starting next month, you'll be working here."

"W-wait. What?! You can't do that. I have a contract with my company. I like working there. I don't even do game design." You pushed yourself out of the chair and crossed your arms across your chest. You were too damn old to be a part of someone else's power play. 

"You said it yourself: 'hire better programmers'. You start here next month, 8:00am sharp." He had the fucking audacity to smirk as he stood up.

You glared at him. The way he made you feel insignificant even in heels was unsettling to say the least. 

"With all due respect, _ Kaiba-sama_," you bit out his name, "I already have a place of employment and I'm currently very happy there." 

"Your mother recommended you." 

A chill shot up your spine. She didn't. Your nails dug into the skin of your palms as you struggled to keep calm and play the game. 

"I doubt that. Mummy dearest doesn't slum it with her child who doesn't want to play princess." You raised a brow, daring him to challenge you on your private family matters — even he had to have some tact. 

"Next month. 8:00am." He repeated as he ushered you out of his office. "Don't be late". 

* * *

You practically collapsed in the back of the taxi. You'd not expected Kaiba to be so intimidating in person or so attractive. Even if he was handsome, how dare he just shoo you out like that? 

_ Bleep. _

Your phone screen lit up with a message. 

Mum: _ Heard CEO of Kaiba Corp was interested in you. Make us proud. I'm collecting. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So in Japan marriage meetings are usually called "omiai". They're essentially matchmaking meetings. They can be pretty casual, but that's clearly not what reader-chan got herself into. 
> 
> Apologies for the slow update. I have many bacteria to babysit and much life happens around me.


End file.
